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January 26, 2025 – Palestine/ Israel –
In the ongoing conflict in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, journalists have increasingly become deliberate targets of violence, according to multiple recent reports. The Al Jazeera program The Listening Post, as featured by Asia Pacific Report, highlights the extreme dangers journalists now face, with many reporting that their press vests no longer offer protection. Instead, media workers describe being deliberately shot at with live ammunition and rubber bullets, arrested, or threatened while covering protests, evacuations, and military operations. The program emphasizes that these attacks aim to silence journalists and control the narrative emerging from conflict zones.
Supporting this grim assessment, a recent statement from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) condemns the ongoing violence against journalists. According to the UN, over 170 media professionals have been killed since the outbreak of hostilities on October 7, 2023. Many others have been wounded, arbitrarily detained, or subjected to intimidation, making this one of the deadliest conflicts for journalists in modern times. The OHCHR stressed that targeting journalists violates international humanitarian law and obstructs justice by preventing independent documentation of human rights violations.
The situation has drawn widespread condemnation from press freedom organizations such as Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). They warn that the systematic targeting of journalists not only endangers individual reporters but also undermines global efforts to hold perpetrators accountable for war crimes and human rights abuses.
As frontline reporters continue to risk their lives to document events on the ground, their safety remains gravely compromised. The deliberate attacks on media personnel are not isolated incidents but part of a wider pattern aimed at stifling independent reporting and restricting information from reaching the international community.
There are growing calls for independent investigations into these attacks, many of which may constitute war crimes under international law. The protection of journalists is not only a moral imperative but a legal obligation, critical to preserving the truth and ensuring that justice can eventually prevail.
References –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elqrCs8cg5M
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1159686
